January 17th is Thank Your Mentor Day

January 2013 marks the 12th anniversary of National Mentoring Month, an annual campaign to encourage volunteers to become mentors for young people and to honor those who already are mentors.

As a highlight of National Mentoring Month 2013, Thank Your Mentor Day will be celebrated on January 17. On that day, Americans thank and honor those individuals who encouraged and guided them and had a lasting, positive impact on their lives. We at Girl Scouts of Greater New York would like to encourage you, too, to reach out to your mentor on January 17.

Here are two ways to honor your mentor:

1. Contact your mentor directly to express your appreciation.

2. Pass on what you received by becoming a mentor to a younger troop or a young person in your own community.

Mentors play a powerful role in building girls’ courage, confidence, and character as well as in boosting academic achievement and workforce readiness. They instill a spirit of leadership and community engagement in girls, help them navigate pathways to successful adulthood and help them realize that they can make a difference in the world. By setting a positive example and sharing their time, knowledge, and experience, mentors play an essential role in preparing our girls for a bright future.

It is this important role of mentors in the fabric of our society that has prompted President Barack Obama to issue a proclamation designating January as National Mentoring Month, commending mentors for “enrich[ing] the lives of our young people and fortify[ing] the unbreakable bonds between one generation and the next.”

Here at the Girl Scouts of Greater New York we encourage our girls to develop their leadership capacities to serve their communities and make the world a better place for all. We gratefully acknowledge the important role mentors play in this development and celebrate their contributions to support, encourage, and guide our Girl Scouts, helping to prepare them to be tomorrow’s leaders and mentors to the next generation of young girls.